While the “tell all” generations are reported to be as concerned with privacy as their older counterparts, they nevertheless continue to naïvely upload terabytes of information onto social networking sites. And those sites have a vested interest in keeping it that way.

In promoting more disclosure, the social networking industry is “capturing” personal information for advertisers and for further data-mining. These efforts are pushing a cultural privacy paradigm shift that will have significant repercussions.

With progressive views on privacy, younger generations will be more likely to put personal, health and financial information online. These disclosures will have more serious and lasting consequences than just a compromising photograph.

Moreover, given the sometimes subtle correlations gleaned from data-mining, it may not be obvious what uploaded information will eventually be the most revealing.